Whodunnit: Murders of a Red Herring, Episode 5: Murderous Celebration
Start The killer treats the guests to an elaborate fireworks show, to treat them before the fifth murder. As the show is coming to an end, Jason and Lori, a Scared couple, are missing. As the beautiful last set is ending, a shriek is heard. Several large whooshes zoom across the lake. A large and explosive firework goes off, and alongside the debris, two large objects fall. Walking to the large pond, they see two crispy objects rise to the surface, the bodies of Jason and Lori. The Crime Scene Visiting the fireworks operating dock, Toby, Doris, Ari and Shawn find a large charred explosion across the wood. Blood is against several planks, and spilled into the water in significant amounts. Near the most horrible burns and chars, a large firework hole is set. A burnt label has a warning about loose fireworks and deadly explosions. Barely intact and blown-up packages have sensors, which seem as if something could have been propelled outwards. Crispy skin floats about on the water's surface, alongside debris. Charred fabric also floats in long strands. Rope is missing from the boating dock, but it is found burnt in the water. Victim's Last Known Whereabouts Andrew, Lexi and Samantha visit Jason's room, both victim's last known whereabouts. The bed is still slightly warm on both sides, suggesting that Lori and Jason were sleeping together. On his dresser there is a weather condition sheet, advertising a false statement about cold weather, even though it was actually quite warm. Other than a tie, sweater and jacket, nothing is missing from the closet. Right outside the door, there are bright red tube of lipstick, as well as a bit of blood. Footprints are deeply buried into the outer carpet, and the imprint is found of a body being dragged across the carpet. Morgue Zayn, Pabla, James and Neveah visit the morgue. Both bodies are lied out on a single table. The automatically notice bad burns across the bodies of the victims. After being soaked in the water, the skin is barely kept together. Every area of Jason's body is riddled with blood, most of it beneath scatters of holes riddled across his body. He wears very thick clothes, with significant burns across his shirt. He also has stabs from shrapnel all across his legs and back. Lori has the same, the holes and the burns and cuts. There are significantly less holes on Lori, but she has a bruise on her forehead, with blood coming out of it. Her wrists have a charred rope-like piece of fabric tied around them. Both have rope burns across their arms, chest and neck. She shares Jason's affinity for thick, double layer clothes. Riddle This riddle involves each guest receiving a firecracker and pack of matches. Giles reads aloud the riddle, which has also been stuck above the warning label on the firecracker. It is as follows: "Our first double murder went off with a bang, Preserve the date on your calendar, we might play it again, Or you can use it to celebrate national fun, But years are important, to separate two things, Remember this, when your missile gains wings, Or you can go and look from this window above, And find in the wreckage a key to cross to love." Toby, Andrew and Zayn team up again, and start to be the only guests to correctly interpret. They notice that the first two lines recap and threat, and the third has the first real clue. Celebrating national fun is a reference to Independence Day, July 4, the day of ratification of the Declaration of Independence. This also refers to calendars, and when thinking of high rooms with windows that might have calendars, they think of the study. Once here, they look for July 4th, only to find that it has simply had the year 1776 written down beneath it. They try August 2nd, the date of the actual signing, only to find 1776 again. Zayn finally realizes that there is a slight space between the 17 and the 76. He adds them and gets 93, so he turns to the 93rd day, April 3rd. Attached is a note telling them to check the bottom drawer. Inside is a double layer package, similar to Jason and Lori's clothing. They drop their firecrackers live into the package, and then thrust it out an open window and into a courtyard. It explodes right above the ground, casting debris and fabric everywhere. A spark of static right before the explosion reveals that friction had a strong hand in the murder. Running into the secure and locked off courtyard via hidden tunnel, the trio finds keys labelled "Boats", and rush to the docks. They realize that they found a key in the wreckage, and that Jason and Lori had been in love, meaning they could've taken a romantic boat ride. After unlocking the boat and uncovering a note saying, "DON'T EVEN TRY IT!!!", they row through a clearly marked path, over to a nearby island. They automatically notice a scatter of holes against the beach shore. After cutting through nearby vines, they find five large machine guns, all with completely empty clips, and a shotgun, with Jason's hair on the end, and Lori's blood on the handle. A rigging schematic also details how to hook up motion sensors and timers to explode a bag. Winners, Losers and a Solution Toby wins a third time for his theory. Here is how the killer committed double homicide: Before we arrived, the killer had an extra large hole on the fireworks operating dock added to accompany a special explosive firework. They also ordered five machine guns and a shotgun. They created a rig hooking up exploding bags, a motion sensor and a timer. They then emptied out the clips into several bags on the firework dock. The killer printed out a false weather report advertising cold weather on a hot night. This was delivered to Jason's suite. Jason and Lori, who was staying with him, followed the instructions and wore double layers. Then, when a knock from the killer awoke Jason, he went and answered it. The killer placed a gun to Jason's head. Lori began following them as they left, dropping her lipstick to the ground. The killer heard her and turned, striking Lori's forehead with the handle of the gun. Grabbing a tie from the closet, the killer tied Lori's hands and dragged her, either dead or unconscious. They got to the platform, where the killer used nearby ropes to tie both to the large firework. When the first firework went of, it set of all off the timers. The timers expired at the same time as the wick ran dull. The guns went off, shooting Jason, Lori, the firework and the sand across the water. The rocket then flew upwards, as a delayed timer went off, shooting the rocket and exploding it out across the water. The victims caught fire quickly, the double layers creating extra friction. Challenge Winner (s): Toby, Andrew and Zayn Best Theory: Toby Spared: Doris, James, Lexi, Neveah, Andrew and Zayn Scared: Pabla, Samantha, Ari and Shawn 00:30, April 27, 2015 (UTC)Jacob Garofalo